CEO David Rutkauskas says someone
offered him $30 million for his 107-unit fast-casual
restaurant chain. He turned the offer down. There’s
plenty of game yet to be played for this young
CEO. But is he ready for tomorrow’s challenges? By
Fred Minnick

David Rutkauskas is young and
ambitious.

This year, the founder of Camille’s Sidewalk
Café created a holding company called Beautiful
Brands International (BBI) to develop additional
brands. To that end, he launched two new concepts—Coney
Beach, a fast-casual hot dog and hamburger restaurant,
and Freshberry, an all-natural yogurt operation.

You were recently awarded the 2007
Entrepreneurial Success Person of the Year by the
Tulsa Metro Chamber. Do you deserve it?

I don’t know if I felt like I deserved it,
but it was a good feeling. The award should really
go to the staff. We have such a great team of people.
I realized years ago that if you hire a bunch of
people smarter than you, you will have a chance
to succeed.

How many Camille’s stores are
currently open?

We have 107 open and just under 1,000 [in development].We
open one a week, somewhere in the world.

You’re in international markets?

We have nine under construction in Puerto Rico,
two under construction in Bahrain, and they’re
going to open this summer.

Why expand into a holding company
when Camille’s is doing so well?

I’m an entrepreneur first and realized early
on that I could create more concepts. If you have
inventory, you can sell franchises. We created
Beautiful Brands International to be the holding
company of all the brands that I own.

Do you have any private equity or
major financial backing?

No.

So all this development is on your
dollar?

It’s all me. We are cash-flowing very well.
There’s probably not a week that goes by
that I don’t get a call from some investment
firm that wants to invest in or buy Camille’s.
We love what we do, and we’re a long ways
away from the end game.

Our royalty stream alone on Camille’s exceeds
our corporate expenses significantly every month.
So all the franchise fees that we bring in, we’re
just throwing that into expansion and growth and
growing new concepts.